Attempts have been made in saddle designs to comfortably fit varying shapes and sizes of horses without either causing discomfort to the horse or elaborate adjustment of the saddle. It is known that a horse may outgrow a given saddle and that one saddle fitting one particular horse may not necessarily be comfortably fitted to another horse.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to produce a saddle tree design which accommodates different horses. Examples include saddle trees made of flexible materials, in an attempt to provide a single saddle which may comfortably fit a range of horse sizes. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,343,674 and 5,435,116 disclose saddle trees having a pair of laterally spaced apart flexible synthetic elongate members connected by a spanning member and a seat element.
In another example U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,459 discloses a saddle tree having a pair of elongate bearing members connected to the saddle tree substantially along its entire length by pivotable mounting means. The elongate bearing members are removable and interchangeable to accommodate different sizes of horses.